


Dread upon Heartland

by TwoCrows



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Angst, Gen, Horror, Possessed Behaviour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-03 12:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16326647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCrows/pseuds/TwoCrows
Summary: Amidst the ruins of the war-torn city Yuto fights to protect his friends at all cost. But academia isn’t the only threat that lurks in the darkness. When his friends start to act strangely, he doesn’t realise that this nightmare had just begun.





	1. Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and happy halloween to all of you!  
> As the nights grow darker, I present you the first horror story I've written so far. Please enjoy!

The pale half-moon shone brightly over Heartland as Yuto hurried through the sinister alleys.  
At every corner he stopped and looked for a sign of academia soldiers. Although they were hardly patrolling at night, he didn’t dare to lower his guard in a foolish sense of security. He had lost too many of his friends and his family. And now this message from Shun.  
It was rare to see his stoic facade crack, but this time his voice had been so full of excitement and worry, it was hard to understand what he said. Apparently his friend had found something, but the rest was too confused. And when the connection suddenly broke off, a lump of fear had formed inside him.  
Had Shun been found by academia?  
Did he walk into one of their traps?  
As they were unable to restore contact with him, Yuto ran off to search for him.  
Ruri’s disappearance had been hard enough. He wouldn’t let his best friend be caught too.  
When he recognised a destroyed wall on his left, he realised he was already at the position Shun had called from.  
Suddenly he heard something and leaped behind a piece of debris. Carefully he peered around it and watched a group of soldiers coming around the corner of the street. One of them said something and the others laughed.  
Good. Apparently they hadn’t spotted him.  
He felt a stab of anger at the sight of those who had taken away so many people stroll through the streets of his home so carelessly, but now he didn’t have the time to fight them. He had to find Shun as quickly as possible.  
Shun…  
Now that he thought of it, he hadn’t heard any fighting noise. Could it be that he already was too late?  
Could it be Shun had been defeated by these soldiers?  
A terrible cold clutched Yuto’s heart.  
Not again!  
Those memories that had been carved into his mind…  
Fires everywhere… All the people, disappearing one after another… Entire buildings vanishing in explosions… The malevolent smile of the soldiers who attacked them…  
Anger welled up inside him and he felt a bitter taste in his mouth.  
He knew it was stupid, but he prepared to come of his cover and attack the soldiers who took his best friend.  
Before he could act, however, a hand covered his mouth and someone pulled him back to the ground.  
Yuto struggled against the strong grip, tried to shout, but the stranger didn’t let go.  
He had been too late. His friend was gone and now academia had caught him as well. Would he end up like those who fell during the invasion?  
Was this what awaited every resident of their city?  
Then a familiar face appeared above him.  
“Be quiet or else I’ll have to knock you out”, Shun whispered into his ear.  
For a moment Yuto was confused. Then he felt embarrassed for this loss of calmness.  
He had been so worried about his friend that he had jumped to the wrong conclusions.  
After the soldiers’ footsteps ceased, Shun released him. Yuto got to his feet and took a look of his friend.  
He was covered in dust and his coat was ragged, but all of them looked this way now. He let out a relieved sigh.  
“I’m sorry, Shun. We all were just worried about you. What…?”  
“Later”, his friend silenced him and moved quickly into the alley behind them.  
Puzzled he followed him, until Shun approached something that leaned against the broken wall.  
His heart skipped a beat when he recognised the person in the dirty, partly ragged clothing.   
“Ruri!”  
When she heard the sound of his voice, she raised her head, however, something about her felt wrong.  
She was looking at him like a stranger.  
“Ruri!” he shouted again when he reached her and knelt down beside her. “Are you alright?”  
She didn’t answer. Her usually sparkling eyes were now dark and dull, without any sign of response.  
A horrible thought rose in his mind, but he didn’t dare to pay attention to it.  
“Hey, Ruri…”  
Helpless he turned to his friend standing next to him, but Shun only shook his head.  
“She’s been like this since I found her. She hasn’t spoken a single word. I’m not sure if she can even understand what we say.”  
The thought in Yuto’s mind now became too clear to ignore it.  
This couldn’t be.  
The girl he remembered smiling so beautifully.  
The girl he had spent so many happy days with.  
This girl was now…  
“There has to be something we can do”, he said, his voice shaking with anger and pain.  
He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look into his face. She struggled and wound against his grip.  
“Hey, Ruri! If you can understand me then say something! You can’t have forgotten about me!”  
Suddenly her eyes widened as though she had remembered something, then she shook off his hands and crawled away from him, her eyes staring at him with blank, utter fear.  
She… She was afraid of him.  
But why?  
He reached out to her, prompting her to cower together, panic flashing over her face. Then he felt a calm hand resting on his shoulder.  
“Maybe it would be better if you stay away from her right now.”  
He looked up. The sympathy in those familiar yellow eyes made Yuto hesitate. Then he nodded.  
“Right… I am sorry, Ruri.”  
When he looked at Shun again, he noticed his friend was trembling. There was no sympathy in his glance now, only cold wrath.  
“Whoever has done this to her… is going to regret the day they were born.”  
This time it was Yuto’s turn to grab his friend’s arm to calm him.  
“First, we must bring her back to the hideout.”  
Shun glared at him for a second, then his anger vanished.  
“Yes, you are right.” 


	2. Soulless

Shun walked through the nightly streets, brimming with anger. The others would probably call it reckless, but he didn’t care about his well-being at the moment.  
What he wanted was find some of those academia bastards and make them pay for what they did to his sister.  
He wanted her to be the Ruri he knew, the Ruri who was always cheerful and laughing, and not the empty shell she was now.  
For the entire day she hadn’t said a word or responded to any of his attempts to talk to her. She hadn’t shown any sign that she even recognised him or her friends. The only thing she did show was this strange, bottomless fear whenever Yuto got close to her.  
Shun wondered what that meant. It was absurd to think Yuto had anything to do with that.  
So many questions…  
And he would get his answers as soon as he found those academia creeps. Even if he had to beat the truth out of them.  
Suddenly he sensed something and whirled around, ready to attack any foe who thought they could sneak on him. However, there was nobody behind him.  
He watched the street intently for a few seconds. Then he turned around and started when he saw a cloaked figure standing in front of him.  
Instinctively he took a fighting stance and was about to fling himself at the figure, but he hesitated when he noticed they didn’t move at all.  
“Who are you?” he asked while he scanned the place wearily for further surprises.  
The figure didn’t answer.  
“I asked who you are!” he shouted with new burning anger.  
This time he got a reaction, although it wasn’t what he expected. A soft laughter escaped the darkness under their hood.  
That was enough. Shun bolted forward to beat that stranger to a pulp, but they disappeared right before his eyes. He spun around and saw them standing a few feet away.  
To his surprised he noticed he was feeling unsettled by the strange figure.  
“Who are you?” he asked again and for the first time he struggled to keep his voice from shaking.  
The figure let out another laugh before they finally answered.  
“I can see the darkness slumbering inside you. A powerless brother who tries to save his beloved sister…”  
At the mention of Ruri, Shun felt an icy lump in his throat.  
“My sister? How do you know about that?  
Are you… Are you the one who did this to her?”  
Although he couldn’t see the figure’s face, he had the feeling they were smiling scornfully at him.  
“Alright”, they replied. “How about a little game? If you are able to defeat the darkness inside you, I’ll return your sister to normal.”  
Shun clenched his fists and let out a growl. “You bastard!”  
“This will be interesting”, the figure said and one moment later Shun blinked in surprise.  
“Where are you?!” he shouted, but only the echo of a soft laughter resounding from the walls answered him.  
“Damn! Come out and show yourself!”  
But he was alone.  
Then a dark shadow fell on him. Shun looked up and saw a huge bird silhouetted against the shimmering moon. 

* * *

This time it was Sayaka who found him.  
After they had noticed Shun’s disappearance, she, Allen and Yuto began to search him throughout the city, but they didn’t find him until morning. Together, Yuto and Allen carried him back to the hideout. Now it was just before sunset and he still hadn’t woken up.  
Shun…  
Yuto remembered this feeling well. It was just like at the day of the invasion. One by one, his friends were disappearing around him. He could fight as much as he wanted, it was all in vain. He couldn’t save anyone.  
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder.  
“It is not your fault, Yuto.”  
He knew Sayaka was trying to soothe him with her words, but he couldn’t shake off this terrible helplessness.  
“Why?” he muttered bitterly. “Why does this happen now?”  
He glanced over to Ruri who sat on the bed next to Shun’s and stared into space. She hadn’t shown any reaction at what happened to her brother.  
“I don’t know”, Sayaka said, giving him a look full of sympathy. “If I can do anything for you, please tell me.”  
Yuto cast down his eyes and shook his head lightly. He recognised a hint of disappointment on Sayaka’s face, before she left the room.  
After a few minutes Allen came in and handed him a bowl of soup.  
“You’ve been here the whole day, right?” he asked after he sat down beside him.  
“You should get some rest too. I can take over for you.”  
Yuto stared down at the bowl, but he didn’t make an attempt to eat.  
Allen left out a sigh. “Yuto, when you keep pushing yourself like this, you’ll end up in one of those beds too.”  
“Maybe”, he muttered.  
“But they are my friends. I cannot…”  
Suddenly he stopped.  
Shun’s hand had stirred a little. For a moment he wondered if this was just his imagination, but then it twitched again.  
Slowly Shun opened his eyes.  
“Shun? Hey, Shun?”  
When his friend’s eyes turned to Yuto, he felt a great weight falling from his shoulders.  
“I’m so glad”, he muttered. “I thought you might not wake up.”  
Shun tried to sit up, but Yuto gently pressed him back on the mattress.  
“Easy, Shun. You shouldn’t get up yet. Take your time.”  
Shun tried to say something, but only a hoarse whisper came out of his mouth. Yuto bent closer in order to understand him, but the only word he could make out was “You…”  
Then, with unexpected strength, Shun shot upwards and Yuto felt his friend’s hands at his throat. Surprised he stumbled backwards, pulling Shun with him until he hit the ground with his back first.  
“Shun, what…?” he tried to ask, but he couldn’t make a sound, his air cut off by Shun’s iron grip.  
With a shout Allen tried to pull him away, but Shun only let go long enough to give him a punch that sent him crashing into one of the chairs standing around the bed, before he continued to strangle his friend with this fearsome strength.  
Yuto began to see black spots dancing in front of his eyes while he struggled against the vice-like grip.  
Then he was free and, coughing heavily, he crawled back until he reached the wall. When his vision cleared enough, he could see five of his comrades trying to restrain the raging Shun. He fought furiously and the others had to take painful punches and kicks.  
Confused and unable to grasp a clear thought, Yuto stared at his best friend who seemingly had gone crazy.  
After a while more helpers arrived, called by Sayaka, and they managed to throw Shun off his feet and drag him into a room in the basement which was secured by a heavy metal door.  
For hours they could still hear him crash against the door in his rage.  
Oh, Shun… What in heaven’s name happened to him?  
Sayaka had taken care of his throat. It was awfully swollen and he wouldn’t be able to eat or speak for a few days. But what concerned Yuto more was his friend’s condition.  
Why did this happen? First Ruri and now Shun…  
What was going on here?  
For the sake of his friends, he had to find out.


	3. The Darkness Within

Two days had passed since Shun’s awakening.  
His condition hadn’t changed. Whenever anyone came close to the room he was in, they heard loud crashing sounds from inside which appeared more like that of a wild animal than a human. They had no idea when he would grow tired, or if he needed sleep at all.  
With Ruri it was the complete opposite. She still didn’t speak or respond to anything. She just sat on her bed and stared around blankly.  
It couldn’t go on like this. Yuto decided he had to find out what happened to his friends and he had to do it now.  
After the others had fallen asleep, he sneaked out of the hideout. When he passed by the bathroom, he almost bumped into Allen who luckily was still half asleep.  
“Don’t stay up for so long”, he muttered groggily. “You’re not fully recovered yet.”  
“I won’t”, Yuto replied and watched Allen tapping back to his bed.  
He was right. Yuto was able to speak again, but it still hurt like hell. He was far from having recovered.  
When he ran through the empty streets, he had a strange feeling, as if he could sense something was about to happen.  
Was this a warning?  
No. Even if it was, he couldn’t stop now.  
He knew the answer had to be somewhere out here.  
“Ah, so you have come.”  
Yuto whirled around and threw up his arms to fend off any attack that would come his way.  
Across him stood a strange figure, about as tall as he was, clad in a dark, hooded cloak. They didn’t show any sign of hostility, so Yuto lowered his hands.  
For a while he and the figure examined each other silently. Although he couldn’t see anything under that cloak, he sensed a hint of excitement from them.  
“Since you know me, I guess you’re the one I’m looking for. Who are you? And what did you do to my friends?”  
Now the figure straightened a little and Yuto thought he could discern a wide smile beneath the hood.  
“Everyone hides darkness inside”, they spoke with a soft and somewhat dreamy voice.  
“Do you want to know yours?”  
Yuto felt his fist clenching from the anger that boiled up inside him.  
“Shut up!” he said hoarsely and took a step forward.  
“I’m not here to play games with you!”  
He grabbed the figure’s collar, but to his shock they dissolved under his touch.  
While he tried to grasp what just happened, a faint whisper reached his ear.  
_You will play this game of mine. Otherwise your friends will stay like this forever._  
Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down.  
The shimmer of the wan crescent got a frightening tone and the shadow of the dark clouds weighed down heavy upon the nightly city. But it was not the same city as before.  
From every direction Yuto felt a shapeless dread closing in on him. He sensed something moving in the dark, although he couldn’t see anything. Shaken by an unknown fear he started to run, away from that place, but the feeling didn’t disappear.  
Yuto had the impression it came after him, attempted to chase him. He looked for a way to flee, but all the streets that should have been familiar to him now appeared uncanny and foreign.  
Panic rose up inside him, his heart racing in his chest, adrenaline rushing through his body. He turned left, and then right, and then left again, but the thing behind him didn’t vanish, it came closer with every step. He glanced briefly over his shoulder, saw a monstrous creature behind him, driving a cold wave of dread across him. He shuddered, ran aimlessly through the sinister alleys, the thing right on his heels, a terrifying noise in the air which grew louder as the thing came closer and closer and closer.  
After a while he could hear loose words and he realised it was a chaotic mess of voices, hundreds and hundreds of them, crying full of fear, panic and pain, he couldn’t understand more than a few words, before a voice was drowned by another one.  
“…Leave us alone, you… No! Not my children! You won’t… please help us! I’m begging you! …You will pay for this! Remember… don’t want to die yet! I… Yuto!”  
At the mention of his name Yuto stumbled and at once he realised who these voices were.  
A stab of dread and pain pounded in his chest and he wished the shouting would turn back to the obscure noise it was before.  
“Yuto! Why? Why did you leave me behind?”  
He tried to close his ears, tried to shut out all the horrible words that came crashing in on him, but this particular voice didn’t disappear.  
“Why, Yuto? I thought we were friends. But when I needed you, you abandoned me.”  
“Yuto. I will not forgive you.”  
Now a second voice rose over the mess and it wasn’t less hurting than the first one.  
“Because you let her alone, my sister was caught. And even now that she’s returned, you are unable to help her.”  
“Yuto, I trusted you. Why did you leave me?”  
“You couldn’t save Ruri. And you couldn’t save me. You couldn’t save anyone when we were invaded. All out friends, they all disappeared because of you.”  
“Don’t your friends mean anything to you, Yuto? I wish I had realised this before.”  
Yuto wanted to shout, wanted to scream out his pain, but all he could do was lower his head and keep on running. He tried to wipe the tears from his eyes, but they didn’t stop coming and blurring his vision.  
He now understood. Guilt was the darkness of his soul. The blood of his friends, the blood of all the citizens was on his hands.  
He hadn’t been able to save any of them. And now they had come to pass judgement on him.  
He had believed the suffering he had gone through had made him stronger. But that was wrong. He wasn’t like Shun. All he could do was run away.  
He couldn’t save his friends. And he couldn’t even accept the punishment for that.  
He was so pathetic.  
Suddenly he tripped over a loose stone and fell.  
He didn’t attempt to get up again. Probably it was better to welcome his end. He didn’t deserve to live on anyway.  
A little smile curved his lips while he listened to his friends’ voices. Now he would see them again the way they had been.  
_The way they had been?_  
He opened his eyes.  
Right. Ruri and Shun didn’t die. They were still alive and they needed his help.  
What he wanted… What he really wanted was to bring them back so he could truly apologise to them. But if he gave up now, they would never come back.  
Yuto’s body was worn out from the desperate running, nevertheless he forced himself to his knees, then, slowly, staggered to his feet and straightened up.  
He turned around to the monstrous shadowy thing that crept closer, looming horrifyingly above him. Yuto was scared, more than he could remember he had ever been before, but he couldn’t run away now. Whatever was going to happen, he would deal with it.  
The thing which was permanently changing its shape seemed to understand his decision and launched forward, the hundredfold voices unifying to a terrible cacophony of dread. A huge wave of darkness swept over Yuto…  
And then it was gone.  
Yuto blinked in surprise, looked down at his hands. He was still here. He didn’t feel hurt. This thing hadn’t done anything to him.  
The sudden silence was broken by respectful clapping and he whirled around. His brief joy vanished instantly as he stared at the cloaked figure from before.  
“That was magnificent!” they praised excited.  
“Truly amazing. I haven’t met anyone before who was able to stand up against their darkness like you did.”  
Yuto gave the figure a sinister glare.  
“How about you finally take off that coat of yours and show me your face?” he asked. Then he narrowed his voice. “You did the same thing to Ruri and Shun, didn’t you? I am not letting you get away with this.”  
The figure gave out a short laugh.  
“Yes, I believe you have earned yourself this reward.”  
They took off their hood and Yuto felt his eyes widen as he stared at what looked like a reflexion of his own face. 


	4. Awakening

Yuto was shaken. Why did the boy with the cloak in front of him have the same face he did?  
“I am not surprised”, the figure commented and set up a disturbing smile.  
“I reacted like this too when I saw you for the first time: A person who looked just like me. I wonder if you have gone through the same things I have.”  
Yuto spat in anger.  
“I am nothing like you! I don’t find pleasure in seeing others suffer.”  
He closed his eyes and the faces of Ruri and Shun, Allen, Sayaka and all the others flashed up in his mind.  
“But now that I have won your sick game, I’m going to let you regret messing with my friends.”  
“Won?” the boy echoed in disbelief. Then his eyes grew wide and a crazy smile appeared on his face.  
“What makes you think you have won? The true fun has just begun!”  
And with that the boy raised one hand above his head and Yuto could sense a shock of bottomless malice washing over him. His body was trembling as he looked into the boy’s glowing eyes, but he couldn’t submit now.  
He commanded his legs to stand firm against the terror.  
“Yes! Yes! That is what I was looking for”, the boy screamed excited. “Let me enjoy this!”  
A heavy blast shook up the street and knocked Yuto from his feet, crashing hard into a pile of rubble. The impact pressed the wind out of his lungs.  
The boy’s elated laugh rang in his ears and made his head ache. Trembling, he rose back to his feet. His vision was blurry, but he thought he could see the boy hesitate.  
“You are going to pay”, a deep, strong voice growled. Yuto needed a moment to realise it came from his own throat.  
Thick, dark anger was pouring out of him. He could sense a violent power rising up inside. He directed it all at this boy across him, this boy with the same face, the boy who had hurt his friends.  
The boy who deserved to suffer.  
Like a helpless puppet he was hauled off his feet, helplessly left to Yuto’s will, whirling around in this overwhelming storm of rage. Yuto wanted him to feel the fear that he had inflicted on others, wanted him to be sorry for ever coming here and messing with others’ lives.  
Finally the boy smashed into a building and Yuto could hear a terrible cracking sound.  
It was over.  
But then why? Why didn’t he stop feeling angry?  
Why was this power continuing to flow through him?  
Why couldn’t he _stop_ here?  
He pressed both hands against his temples, but the throbbing didn’t cease.  
He was feeling dizzy. Sweat was forming on his forehead. A sudden burst of pain and his heart was about to shatter.  
Everything was spinning around him.  
Then he could feel something else inside him. Something dark and full of malice.  
Fragments of memories flashed through his mind.  
A world in flames.  
Towers crumbling, houses collapsing like trees in a hurricane.  
People running away, screaming.  
Hundreds. Thousands.  
Millions?  
It didn’t matter. One heartbeat later they all were silent, lifeless bodies covering the earth.  
A huge shadow darkening the sky.  
What… What was that?  
Why did he feel a hint of… _pleasure_ at these images?  
He tried to snap out of it. He didn’t want this!  
This wasn’t he! He had experienced the terror of war. He couldn’t…  
RISE. CONQUER. DESTROY.  
BECOME THE STRONGEST!  
BECOME… GOD!  
“Who… Who are you?” he muttered with clenched teeth.  
The other consciousness pushed him aside easily. It was so strong, so huge. Yuto wanted to cry out his powerlessness.  
Ruri… Shun…  
No! What was he thinking? If he gave up now, his friends would…  
No! This was _his_ brain. He wouldn’t surrender it to someone else!  
“Get… out of my head”, he muttered.  
He felt the other one irritated by his sudden resistance, unwilling to relinquish what it had conquered just now.  
“Do you… hear me? Get out!”  
The pain in his head grew so hard it might explode every second.  
He heard a cry of anger and frustration and then…  
Nothing. 

* * *

Yuto woke up lying on the ground. For a moment he was confused that he wasn’t in the hideout. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the star-studded sky and the faint light of the crescent and then he remembered.  
The hooded figure…  
Running through the streets, chased by a dark shadow…  
The voices of the fallen ones…  
The boy with his face…  
But what happened after that? Why was he lying on the ground?  
He heard the sound of a hoarse laugh. Though his body felt leaden, he somehow managed to sit up and look around.  
The other boy was also getting to his feet from where he had crashed into the wall. One of his arms was hanging limply from his side. He hobbled towards him, one of his feet dragging across the floor and Yuto hastily struggled to his feet.  
The boy stopped a few feet away from him and the same disturbing smile as before shimmered on his face.  
“Congratulations”, he said delighted. “You have won this game indeed.”  
Yuto couldn’t help but feel wary towards this boy.  
“What about my friends?” he asked without much patience.  
The boy’s smile widened for a moment.  
“They have been released.”  
Yuto let out a sigh. “Thank goodness.”  
Ruri… Shun… Now they were back. They could be together like they used to, before the world became a different one.  
The other boy gave him a long, intense glance, as if he wanted to memorise every detail of him. Then he turned around and hobbled into the nightly alleys.  
“Where are you going?” Yuto asked, but the boy ignored him.  
Before he stepped into the shadow, the boy stopped again and turned his head to Yuto.  
“You have defeated your darkness this time. But be assured that it will devour you one day.”  
Yuto felt a sudden shiver run through him and opened his mouth to ask the boy what he meant, but when his silhouette reached the shadow of the alley, he seemed to melt into the darkness, vanishing without a trace.  
Now that he was gone, Yuto felt the weight of exhaustion pushing down on him.  
He stumbled back and sank down, leaning his back against a wall, and closed his eyes.  
He couldn’t stay here.  
If he did, academia was going to find him. He had to get up and return to the hideout.  
If only he wasn’t this tired.  
Shun… He would have the strength to get back up. Yuto wanted…  
Yuto wanted to see him.  
Slowly, he rose, his legs hurting from running away, his chest hurting from smashing into the debris. Despite this, he set one foot before the other, starting the long trudge back. His mind was getting thick and dizzy just from remembering the way and more than once he almost tripped over his feet.  
His friends.  
They were safe now.  
This time he had been able to protect them.  
This time, he didn’t run away.  
“Yuto!”  
The sudden shout made him look up.  
On the other end of the street he saw something that completely took away his breath.  
Long dark hair wafting around a beautiful face and eyes that glistened in the first light of the morning sun.  
Worriedly she ran towards him. For the first time in forever she truly looked at him and the warmth in her gaze made him feel wonderfully light.  
He made a few staggering steps, before he collapsed into her arms.  
“Yuto! Yuto! Are you alright?” she shouted with a hint of panic in her voice.  
Yuto merely put his arms around her and let the tears escape from his eyes.  
“Ruri… You are back.”  
And with that he let himself sink into the gentle embrace of slumber. 


End file.
